David Foulke Memorial Garden, Boerum Hill, Green With Envy Tour, I.4

David Foulke Memorial Garden

Another lovely, ornamental garden in Boerum Hill. It may sound strange, but the first thing that really wowed me about this garden was the sinuous brick path winding from the front entrance to the back seating area.

David Foulke Memorial Garden

David Foulke Memorial Garden

Solid, perfectly bowed from the center to the margins for drainage. A herringbone pattern, with each marginal brick perfectly cut to fit the curve of the path. A professional job, which makes sense, considering that this garden is owned by the Brooklyn-Queens Land Trust, which has access to the resources for a job like this.

There was also plenty of vegetal eye candy, as well.

Wall Planter

Solenostemon (Coleus)

Daucus carota

Strobilanthes

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Green With Envy Tour of Brooklyn Community Gardens, July 12 and 26

Wyckoff-Bond Community Garden, Boerum Hill, Green With Envy Tour, I.3

Wyckoff-Bond Community Garden

I didn’t get many shots of this one, another ornamental green space. There’s only one narrow path which loops like a shepherd’s crook from the entrance into the heart of the garden. It was hard to assemble everyone on the tour into the garden at once.

Wyckoff-Bond Community Garden

Wyckoff-Bond Community Garden

Many trees and large shrubs shade the rest of the property, much of it not accessible to the casual visible. (Gardeners, of course, make their own paths.) I imagine it must be a paradise for birds.

Wyckoff-Bond Community Garden

Viburnum, detail

Hosta and Coreopsis

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Hoyt Street Garden, Boerum Hill, Green With Envy Tour, I.2
Green With Envy Tour, Tour One, Stop 1
Green With Envy Tour of Brooklyn Community Gardens, July 12 and 26

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Hoyt Street Garden

On busy Atlantic Avenue, at the corner of Hoyt Street, lies the green oasis of the Hoyt Street Garden. This was our second official stop on the first leg of the Green With Envy Tour yesterday morning.

Hoyt Street Garden, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn

Metasequoia, Hoyt Street Garden

Dominated by a large Metasequoia and an oak, this is a shade garden, so no vegetables. The center circle is used for story-telling on the weekends. Funds from an annual plant sale funds micro-grants for projects that benefit the Boerum Hill community.

Salvage Path

Variegated Solomon's Seal, Hoyt Street Garden

Our Lady of Milk Crates

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Green With Envy Tour, Tour One, Stop 1
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Brooklyn Bear’s Garden, Park Slope, Green With Envy Tour, I.1

The Brooklyn Bear’s Community Garden at Pacific Street and Flatbush Avenue. That’s the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower behind.
Brooklyn Bear's Garden

Today I attended the first leg of the Green with Envy guided walking tour of some of Brooklyn’s numerous community gardens. Today we visited 10 community gardens in Park Slope and Boerum Hill over 5 hours. Yes, my feet hurt.

I also took hundreds of photos, which will take me a few days to get through. Here’s the first batch, from the Brooklyn Bear’s Community Garden at Pacific Street and Flatbush Avenue. There are many more on my Flickr site.

Touristas (mostly)
Touristas

The garden occupies a wedge of land at the intersection of Pacific Street and the every-busy Flatbush Avenue. There’s an entrance on each side.

Brooklyn Bear's Garden, Pacific Street and Flatbush Avenue

Here’s a view of the Pacific Street side. The entrance is just past the raging Capmsis radicans, Trumpet Vine, which dominates this fence during the summer.

Brooklyn Bear's Garden, Pacific Street

Here’s the entrance on Flatbush Avenue, from outside, and in.

Brooklyn Bear's Garden, Flatbush Avenue entrance
Flatbush Avenue entrance

As you enter from Flatbush, the individual plots are to your left.

Brooklyn Bear's GardenBrooklyn Bear's GardenBrooklyn Bear's GardenBrooklyn Bear's Garden

Mostly vegetables.

Cabbage leaves

Squash blossom

But also ornamentals.

Zinnia
Zinnia
Zinnia

Common areas are devoted to ornamental plantings. They’re attractive to all kinds of insects, which satisfy the vegetables’ needs for pollination. View these flower portraits in their larger sizes to see which insects they’re attracting.

Brooklyn Bear's Garden

Roses and guests

Water Lily

Groundcovers

Rudbeckia

Milkweed

I also had the pleasure of meeting two fellow Flickrites: luluinnyc and mayotic. I’m looking forward to seeing their shots of today’s tour.

Related Content

Green With Envy Tour of Brooklyn Community Gardens, July 12 and 26
Brooklyn Bear’s Community Garden, February 13, 2008
All my photos of this garden (Flickr set)

Weed Cortelyou some more this weekend

This weekend Flatbush residents have two more opportunities to weed, clean up, and mulch tree pits along Cortelyou Road:

  • Saturday, July 12, 9am to 12 noon, between Rugby and Marlborough Roads. Meet at the clock at the northwest corner of Rugby and Cortelyou, by the school and playground.
  • Sunday, July 13, 9am to 12noon, between East 16th and East 17th Streets. Meet at the corner of East 16th and Cortelyou.

One of the tree pits on Cortelyou Road between Rugby and Marlborough, across the street from the Food Co-op, June 28, 2008. The weeds were as high as the parking meter then. They’re even higher now.
Major Weeds

We will be there both mornings from 9am to 12noon or when that block is weeded, whichever comes first. No gardening experience necessary! We will show you what to do.

Bring your own drinking water, sunscreen, and gloves and be ready to get dirty.

Thanks to Flatbush Development Corporation for buying mulch for the tree pits! And many thanks to my neighbor, Tracey Hohman, for jump-starting this cleanup!

Related Posts

Links

Brooklyn’s Raccoons in the New York Times

Update 2010.01.03: Removed all links to the old Gowanus Lounge domain, which has since been appropriated by some parasitic commercial site.


Flatbush Raccoon, June 26, 2008
Flatbush Raccoon

Last week, I was interviewed by reporter Ann Farmer for the New York Times about my experiences with raccoons. The article is published in today’s Times:

Raccoons have long been widespread in New York City, and there is no way to say with any statistical certainty whether there are more now. But Capt. Richard Simon of the Urban Park Rangers, which is part of the city’s Parks Department, said a rise in the number of 311 callers reporting sightings, encounters or interactions suggests that “the citywide population of raccoons has increased.”

One thing seems clear. In the leafy neighborhoods surrounding Brooklyn’s Prospect Park and Green-Wood Cemetery, residents have been flooding the Internet with raccoon stories.
The City’s Latest Real Estate Fight: Humans Against Raccoons, Ann Farmer, New York Times, July 8, 2008

That pesky Internet! Ms. Farmer cites the Brooklyn blogosphere as one source for the reports:

Chris Kreussling, a computer programmer who lives just south of Prospect Park in Flatbush, posted pictures on his Flatbush Gardener blog recently of several raccoons in his backyard. It elicited a quick round of similar testimonies.

Another Brooklyn blog, the Gowanus Lounge, chronicled multiple raccoon sightings in recent days (link defunct) in Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Windsor Terrace and Red Hook.

When contacted, many bloggers recalled raccoons rooting around in gardens and compost piles, traipsing into children’s wading pools and sometimes rearing up on their hind legs when startled. Many expressed awe at seeing the nocturnal mammals so close.

“People need access to wildlife in urban areas,” Mr. Kreussling said. “I consider it a bonus.”

That last quote is a reference to biophilia, literally “love of life or living systems.” I think the way I expressed it in the interview was something like: People need nature around them.

Ms. Farmer also interviewed several of my neighbors. Check out Nelson Ryland’s cautionary tale of the hazards of cat doors!

Thanks to my neighbor Brenda of Crazy Stable and Prospect: A Year in the Park for putting Ms. Farmer on the trail!

Related Posts

Rabies in NYC: Facts and Figures
Summer Nights, June 26, 2008
Raccoons

Links

The City’s Latest Real Estate Fight: Humans Against Raccoons, Ann Farmer, New York Times, July 8, 2008

Some recent and current blooms in my garden

Hemerocallis, Daylily, June 21, 2008
Hemerocallis, Daylily

Just some quick photos of plants recently or currently blooming in my garden. The first few were taken two weeks aga.

Meta

I’ve changed my feedburner feed to remove the merged feed of photos from my Flickr site. I sometimes upload scores or hundreds of photos at a time. Also, often those photos are of events that are of more local community and less general gardening interest. For both these reasons, I think that including my photos interferes with the main use of the feed: subscribing to updates to this blog.

Those of you who want to keep tabs on my updated photos can still do so. My Flickr photostream has its own feed, available in either RSS or Atom format. You can subscribe to my photos directly from there.

Daylilies

I don’t “collect” daylilies, at least not the way I try to collect Hosta or native plants. We inherited a few with the gardens when we bought the house. For that reason, I consider them to be “passalong” plants: dependable, sturdy, hardy, tolerant of neglect, vigorous, and so on. I gave away several clumps this Spring. I’ll have more to give away over time.

Hemerocallis, Daylily, June 21, 2008
Hemerocallis, Daylily

Native Plants

Ascelpias incarnata, Swamp Milkweed, June 21, 2008
Ascelpias incarnata, Swamp Milkweed

Echinacea pallida, Pale Coneflower, June 21, 2008. This photo was used to illustrate “Coneflowers: America’s Prairie Treasures”, by Barbara Perry Lawton, in the Summer 2009 edition of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s “Plants & Gardens News.”
Echinacea pallida, Pale Coneflower

The Shady Path

In this short section of the shady path on the north side of the house, I have my two big-leaved monsters: Rodgersia pinnata, on the right, and Kirengeshoma palmata, on the left. The Rodgersia has a lot of drought damage from our heat wave a few weeks ago, but it’s off-frame of this photo. I’m keeping a close watch on the Kirengeshoma, as it also crisps up at the slightest hint of drought. There are buds on it now, which mature very slowly into waxy yellow bells. It benefits here from its location next to my neighbor’s mixed border, which gets watered by soaker hose.

Part of the Shady Path

Both of these plants are several years old, possibly even a decade. I’ve lost track of when I purchased them. They’re slow-growing, but continue to increase in size every year, despite never being divided in all that time. They are well worth the wait.

I used to keep the Kirengeshoma in a large container, which I could never water enough. It’s much happier in the ground. Both of these plants would prefer constant moisture. I have long-term plans to build a rain garden in the shady part of the front yard. When the time comes, both of these plants will be very happy there.

Nestled between them in the foreground is a small, yellow-leaved, purple-flowering Hosta. I’ve lost the id for this. I think it might be ‘Little Aurora.’ Any Hosta aficionados out there who can weigh in on what this might be?

Hosta 'Little Aurora'?

Hosta 'Little Aurora'?

Heirloom Canna

Last to share with you today is the Heirloom Canna ‘Mme. Paul Caseneuve’ blooming in a large, glazed container in the front yard. This is the same specimen that I grew for the first time last year. I overwintered it in the same container in an unheated, but enclosed, section of the front porch. I’m surprised it came back.

Heirloom Canna 'Mme. Paul Caseneuve'

It doesn’t look as pink as I remember it from last year. The color is more apricot/salmony this year. At least it’s got the same bronze foliage.

Heirloom Canna 'Mme. Paul Caseneuve'

Related Content

Heirloom Canna “Mme. Paul Caseneuve”, August 17, 2007
The Shady Path (Flickr photo set)

Cortelyou Weeded (Partly)

Before: Weeding Cortelyou
Before: Weeding Cortelyou

This morning I joined about a dozen neighbors to weed, clean up, and mulch the tree pits on Cortelyou Road between Argyle and Rugby Roads. Many hands made light work of the 15 tree pits on the north and south sides of this one block. We got them all done in about 2-1/2 hours.

They look great. If you visit the Greenmarket tomorrow, or visit the block during the week, take a look and thank your neighbors. Thanks to Tracey Hohman for organizing this. And thanks to Flatbush Development Corporation for buying mulch for the tree pits!

After: Cortelyou Weeded
After: Cortelyou Weeded

Weeded and mulched tree pit
Weeded and mulched tree pit

We could only do this one block. There’s more to be done. If you’re available to help out on upcoming weekends, please let us know by responding to the poll in the upper-right of the sidebar, or email me at the address in my profile.

Related Posts

Weeding Cortelyou

Links

Flatbush Development Corporation
Invasive and Noxious Weeds of the Northeast, USDA PLANTS Database

Cortelyou Greenmarket Update: Raffle and more farmers

Cortelyou Greenmarket

From Stacey McCarthy, market manager:

This Sunday, July 6, at the Cortelyou Road Farmers Market, come by the information table to enter the FREE RAFFLE of Greenmarket goodies donated by our market’s farmers. Presented in a stylish Greenmarket tote bag, the raffle items will be available to pick up next Sunday, July 13.

This week promises to be a full house with the arrival of VICTOR PAVIA of El Mirador Farms. Victor tells me he will have a good selection of lettuce, herbs, summer squash and SQUASH BLOSSOMS. Victor, like Jorge Carmona of Amantai Farms, is part of the New Farmer Development Program, which “identifies, educates, and supports immigrants with agricultural experience by helping them become local farmers and establish small farms in the region.” Pick up a program fact sheet at the information table to learn more about the program that trains the next generation of our regions farmers.

Farmers in July 6:

  • Hodgson’s, Walden, NY — plenty of plants, rose bushes, herbs, and strawberries
  • Red Jacket Orchard’s, Geneva, NY — apples, CHERRIES, juices
  • El Mirador Farm, New Jersey — ZUCCHINI BLOSSOMS, lettuce
  • Muddy River Farm, New Hampton, NY — Lettuce, SUGAR SNAP PEAS, fennel, HERBS, BEETS
  • Amantai Farm/Jorge Carmona, Breinigsville, PA — Lettuce, cucumbers – perfect for pickling or eating as is, greens, zucchini, GREEN BEANS and YELLOW WAX BEANS, honey
  • Bread Alone, Boiceville, NY — bread, pies, muffins
  • Meredith’s Bakery, Kingston, NY — bread, pies, QUICHES, jams

Probably (!) coming on July 6: Knoll Crest Farm, Hyde Park, NY — Eggs, chickens, and pasta

COMING SOON … sometime in July: Valley Shepherd, Long Valley, New Jersey — artisanal cave aged cheeses, plus yogurt